You Are Comfort

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This is the d’var Torah I delivered at Congregation Neveh Shalom on Saturday, July 25, 2026

Sometimes the hardest thing to say to someone who is hurting is also the simplest: “I’m here.”

It’s not, “Everything happens for a reason.” It’s not, “Look on the bright side.” It’s not even, “It’s going to be okay.” Just: “I’m here. You are not alone.”

That may be the deepest meaning of Shabbat Nachamu. This morning we read Parshat Va’etchanan. The name itself means, “I pleaded.” Moses tells us that he begged God to allow him to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land. After forty years of leadership, sacrifice, complaints about manna, complaints about water, complaints about the complaints, surely Moses has earned this. But God says no.

And what strikes me is that God does not give Moses an especially satisfying explanation. Moses doesn’t receive an answer that makes everything okay. Instead, God tells him to climb to the top of Pisgah and look.

“Lift up your eyes westward, northward, southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes.” Moses cannot enter the land. But he can see it.

And then God tells him something else: strengthen Joshua. “V’chazkeihu v’amtzeihu.” “Strengthen him and give him courage.” That may be one of Torah’s most profound responses to disappointment. When you can’t change what has happened, you can still strengthen someone else for what comes next. That’s the journey we make from Tisha B’Av into Shabbat Nachamu.

On Tisha B’Av we don’t pretend that Jewish history has been easy. We remember destruction, exile, persecution, and loss. And this year especially, those memories don’t feel safely tucked away in ancient history. We know the anxiety of watching antisemitism grow. We carry the pain of war, the vulnerability of Jewish communities, and uncertainty about what kind of world our children will inherit.

Then Isaiah speaks: Nachamu, nachamu ami—Comfort, comfort My people. Not: Forget what happened. Not: Everything will be fine. Comfort.

And perhaps comfort is less about finding the right words than about helping another person find the strength to take the next step. This is what Moses ultimately does. He can’t cross the Jordan, so he prepares Joshua to cross it. He can’t lead the next chapter, so he teaches the next generation the Shema. He can’t control the future, but he can transmit the values that will help his people meet it. There is extraordinary strength in that.

Our tradition doesn’t promise that every broken thing will be repaired in our lifetime. Tisha B’Av certainly teaches us otherwise. But Judaism does insist that despair never gets the final word. So our charge on Shabbat Nachamu is not simply to seek comfort. It is to become comfort.

Call someone who is struggling. Listen without trying to solve. Strengthen someone who is afraid. Teach our children that being Jewish carries both vulnerability and extraordinary joy. Remind one another that whatever the world brings, we face it as a community.

Moses looks across the Jordan and sees a future he will not inhabit. And then he strengthens those who will. Perhaps that is nechamah: not knowing that everything will be okay, but knowing that whatever comes next, we will give one another the strength to meet it.

Perfect Vision

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This is the d’var Torah I delivered on Saturday, July 18, at Congregation Neveh Shalom.

Before we even open the Book of Devarim this week, we hear the echo of another text. We call this Shabbat Chazon, the Shabbat of Vision, because of the opening words of Isaiah: “Chazon Yeshayahu” — “The vision of Isaiah.” It’s the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, the day on which we remember the destruction of both Temples and many other tragedies throughout Jewish history.

It’s an odd pairing: a prophetic vision and destruction, hope and grief, Torah and lament. And perhaps that is exactly the point.

The Book of Devarim begins with Moses looking backward. After forty years in the wilderness, he gathers the people and retells their story. He reminds them of their triumphs and, perhaps even more importantly, their failures. He recalls the episode of the spies, the endless complaints, the moments when fear eclipsed faith. Moses understands something profound: a people who refuse to remember honestly are destined to repeat what they refuse to learn.

But Moses also asks a question that feels remarkably contemporary. Overwhelmed by the burdens of leadership, he cries out:

“Eichah esa levadi…” “How can I bear your troubles, your burdens, and your disputes alone?” (Deuteronomy 1:12)

That single word “Eichah” is what connects this week’s Torah reading to Tisha B’Av. It’s the same word that opens the Book of Lamentations: “Eichah yashvah vadad…” “How lonely sits the city…” (Lamentations 1:1). The sages heard the echo intentionally. The road to destruction didn’t begin with burning buildings. It began when a community became consumed by conflict, division, blame, and the inability to carry one another’s burdens.

Our tradition teaches that the Second Temple was destroyed because of sinat chinam, baseless hatred. Whether that phrase captures every historical complexity is almost beside the point. It names a spiritual truth. Societies rarely collapse overnight. They erode one relationship, one act of contempt, one refusal to listen at a time.

It’s hard not to see ourselves in that mirror. We live in a world that rewards outrage over understanding, certainty over curiosity, and winning over listening. Every disagreement is treated as an existential battle. Every difference becomes a reason to separate rather than to engage.

And yet Shabbat Chazon is not simply a vision of destruction. Isaiah’s vision is ultimately one of possibility. He imagines a Jerusalem restored through justice and righteousness. Tisha B’Av itself is filled with seeds of hope. Tradition teaches that the Messiah is born on Tisha B’Av, not because suffering is redemptive, but because even in our darkest moments, Judaism insists that hope is never extinguished.

As we begin Devarim and prepare for Tisha B’Av, Moses’s question becomes our own. How do we carry one another’s burdens? How do we build communities where disagreement does not become division? How do we choose compassion over contempt? If destruction begins with forgetting our shared humanity, then redemption begins by remembering it.

May this Shabbat Chazon give us the vision to see not only what is broken in our world, but what is still possible. May we become people who repair before things shatter, who listen before we judge, and who choose to build the kind of community and the kind of world that future generations will be grateful to inherit. Shabbat shalom.

Milk and Honey

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This is the d’var Torah I delivered at Congregation Neveh Shalom on Friday, July 10, 2026.

Before we delve into this week’s Torah portion, here’s a simple question: If you had to describe “home” in just two words, what would they be? Based on tonight’s Shabbat theme, do you see where this is going? For the Torah, the answer is “milk” and “honey.” 

Those words appear again and again throughout the Torah, not as a travel brochure or a restaurant review, but as a promise. They evoke abundance, possibility, and hope; a land flowing with milk and honey. Milk represents nourishment. Honey represents sweetness. Together they paint a picture of a place where life can flourish. 

This week we conclude both the Book of Numbers and the journeys of the wilderness with Parshat Matot-Masei. The Torah recounts the forty-two stops the Israelites made on their way from Egypt to the edge of the Promised Land. There are battles, negotiations, the establishment of cities of refuge, and detailed descriptions of the borders of the land the people are about to enter. After forty years of wandering, the destination is finally in sight. It’s striking that just as the Israelites are preparing to cross the Jordan River, the Torah pauses to remember every step along the way. Before looking forward, it looks back. Before arriving, we remember the journey. 

Tonight our theme is “Milk and Honey” Shabbat, a reminder that the Land of Israel has always held a unique place in the Jewish story. For thousands of years, Jews prayed facing Jerusalem. In exile, we ended our Seders with “Next year in Jerusalem.” Across continents and centuries, the Land of Israel remained not simply a destination, but the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, the place where our collective story was born, where our sacred calendar took shape, and where so much of our Torah unfolded. 

Like every homeland, Israel is complex. It is a place of joy and sorrow, celebration and heartbreak, hope and challenge. Loving something does not require pretending it is simple. But complexity does not erase connection. The Torah’s repeated vision of a land flowing with milk and honey reminds us that our relationship with Israel is rooted not merely in politics or current events, but in covenant, memory, and peoplehood. 

As we close the Book of Numbers, perhaps that is our invitation. Take time to remember the journeys that have brought you where you are. Cherish the places that have shaped your identity. And ask yourself: What would it look like for me to add a little more milk and honey to the world this week? More nourishment. More sweetness. More hope. Hazak, hazak, v’nithazek. Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another. 

250 Years of Freedom: A Pinchas Reflection

Eve Posen1 Comment

This is the d’var Torah I delivered at Congregation Neveh Shalom on Friday, July 3, 2026.

This week our nation marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A quarter of a millennium is worth celebrating. It’s also worth reflecting on. 

The American story has never been simple; it’s a story of breathtaking ideals and painful contradictions. A nation founded on liberty that tolerated slavery. A country that has expanded rights for generations while still wrestling with inequality, polarization, and the question of what freedom actually demands of us. Freedom, it turns out, is easier to declare than to sustain. 

That complexity makes this year’s Parshat Pinchas feel surprisingly timely. Pinchas begins with a shocking act of zealotry. It moves quickly into a census, preparing a new generation to enter the Land of Israel. There are laws of inheritance as the daughters of Tzelofchad courageously reshape the future. Joshua is appointed as Moses’s successor. And the parshah concludes with the rhythm of communal offerings that will anchor Israel’s spiritual life. 

On the surface, these stories seem disconnected. But they share a common thread: a people learning that building a nation requires far more than winning freedom. 

To paraphrase a great quote that’s often attributed to the preacher George Morrison: The Exodus got the Israelites out of Egypt. The wilderness was meant to get Egypt out of the Israelites. Freedom was never simply about crossing a sea; it was about learning how to build a society worthy of that freedom. 

Notice what dominates the parshah. Not military victories. Not miraculous plagues. Instead, we find census-taking, legal reform, leadership transition, and shared ritual. In other words: institutions. Responsibilities. Systems that outlast any one generation. 

That is the quiet genius of Torah. It reminds us that nations are not held together by moments of inspiration alone. They endure because ordinary people keep choosing covenant over chaos. 

That feels especially relevant today. The headlines can leave us exhausted. Political division, war abroad, rising antisemitism, anxiety about the future—it’s tempting to believe the center cannot hold. Yet Jewish history teaches otherwise. We’ve lived through empires rising and falling. We’ve seen democracies flourish and falter. We know that hope is not optimism; hope is a discipline. 

As America celebrates 250 years, there’s no need to pretend our country is perfect to be grateful for it. Patriotism, like love, is mature enough to celebrate what is beautiful while working honestly to repair what is broken. 

This week, let us borrow Moses’ wisdom. Invest in the next generation. Like the daughters of Tzelofchad, speak up when justice requires it. Like Joshua, lead with humility. And remember that freedom is not measured only by the rights we claim, but by the responsibilities we willingly carry for one another. 

That may be the most enduring lesson of Pinchas: the promise of a nation is never finished. Every generation inherits it, shapes it, and then places it into the hands of those who come next. May we prove worthy of the freedom we have received, and courageous enough to leave it stronger than we found it. 

Honoring Over Understanding

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This is the d’var Torah I delivered on Friday, June 26, at Congregation Neveh Shalom.

There is something deeply human about wanting an explanation. We like categories. We like certainty. We like being able to answer the question, “Why?”

But Parshat Chukat begins with a mitzvah that refuses to offer one. “Zot chukat haTorah.” This is the decree of the Torah. The red heifer is Judaism’s ultimate mystery. It purifies the impure while simultaneously rendering those who perform the ritual temporarily impure. It doesn’t fit neatly into our logic. Even our greatest sages admitted they could not fully explain it.

Perhaps the Torah is teaching us something profound before it teaches us anything else: Not everything holy has to make complete sense to us. Our tradition is built not only on understanding, but on humility. There are realities that invite us to stop trying to explain and instead begin by honoring.

As we celebrate Pride Month, I find myself returning to this idea. For generations, LGBTQIA+ Jews have been asked to explain themselves. To justify who they are. To answer questions that many of us would never think to ask of someone else.

Chukat offers a different posture. What if our first response to another person’s identity wasn’t, “Help me understand”? What if it were, “Help me honor the holiness before me”? The Torah repeatedly reminds us that every human being is created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. That truth doesn’t depend on whether I fully understand another person’s experience. It depends on my willingness to recognize God’s image reflected in them.

Ironically, Chukat is often described as the portion that teaches us the limits of certainty. That may be one of the greatest spiritual gifts we can receive, because love does not require complete understanding. Respect does not require complete understanding. Dignity does not require complete understanding. Sometimes faith asks us to embrace mystery, not because mystery is frightening, but because mystery is where God so often dwells.

Our charge this week is to practice holy humility. To resist the temptation to categorize every person we meet. To honor the sacred complexity of each soul. And to remember that the most faithful response to another human being is not always explanation. Sometimes it is simply blessing.